My First Finish of the Year!

I'm off to a really slow start, but I have my first finish of 2018.  I finished up binding my Kaffe quilt last night and buried the threads this morning.


The pattern I used for this quilt is Walk About by Grizzly Gulch.  All fabrics, front and back, are Kaffe Fassett.  I used the Echo Blossoms pantograph available from Willow Leaf Studio and So Fine 50 wt thread by Superior.  I love how this turned out.  So does my daughter, who picked the backing fabric and claimed the quilt when it was just a pile of fabric.

My next project in the queue for completion is this doll quilt.  I pattern tested the top for Pixie Faire back in the day.  The pattern is by Lilie Stone and you can buy it at Pixie Faire.  Anyway, I had it almost bound when I realized that I'd somehow chopped off the corner of the binding.  And there it sat for a few years.  Yesterday I removed the binding and replaced the cut piece.  Now I just need to sew down the binding.
I made this baby quilt top years ago for one of my husband's bosses, who did not like it.  (Had to make a different quilt, but that's a whole other story.)  I had started to quilt it on my domestic machine and it had tucks in the back.  Again, I got frustrated and there it sat.  I'm guessing about 13 or 14 years now.  My daughter rocks at seam ripping--she is super fast!  So I had her rip out the quilting.  I'll give it all a good press and quilt it on the long arm.  I'm seriously contemplating trying out my rulers on it.  I just have to figure out how to attach the ruler table to the machine.  It involves attaching magnets to the machine.  Meh.

I also got the "My Dogs Are Barking" row by row from Modern Domestic pieced.  There was very little extra fabric in the kit.  I messed up one black piece--accidentally cut my 1/4" from the wrong side and chopped my piece right off.  There was not enough extra black to redo it, so I had to go buy more.  How did I not have any black fabric in my stash?? I had just enough of the coral and the brown; good thing, since those would have been much harder to replace locally.  I do have a decent piece of the background and a small piece from the coat fabric left.  

That being said, I think it's super cute.  I bought some polka dot backing that matches the coral and will bind in black.  I just have to figure out how to quilt it now.  Always my hangup.  I'm planning to hang it in my future sewing room when both are finished.
Our basement project is moving along a bit.  We got the tile mostly laid in the bathroom.  The tile is Style Selections Serso Black Walnut Wood Look Porcelain tile from Lowes.  I'm very happy with how it looks.  We special ordered matching epoxy grout from a flooring store that should be in this weekend.  One comment on the tile--my husband found that the tiles were not consistently sized from end to end, so he did a fair bit of sorting so that everything lined up.

I think I finally have made a decision on my sewing room flooring.  I think this Mannington Adura Max luxury vinyl plank in Sundance Gunstock is going to be the one.  My wall color will be very similar to this, if not the same.  It's Valspar Homestead Resort Jefferson White from Lowes.  I was also forced to come up with a for-sure layout for the cabinets since the floor has to be laid around them.  We're just about there with that; I have a few measurements and a few specialty hardware layouts to confirm.  I hope I like it since it will be permanent!
I want to take a moment to address leaving feedback on a handmade item.  The internet gives voice to anyone, for better or for worse.  I think that people forget that there is a human on the other end of the transaction.  Unless something is seriously defective with the item you purchased or they took a month to ship an in-stock item, why leave either a less than stellar rating or a passive aggressive, seemingly positive, but in reality, negative review?  

If you don't like hook and loop tape, don't use it.  If you don't like the construction methods the designer chose in the pattern, do what you want instead. You don't have to exactly follow a pattern. Or if you don't like clothing that closes with hook and loop tape, ask for a custom instead of leaving a poor review, especially when it was disclosed in the listing that hook and loop tape was used.  I don't know.  I would rather receive no feedback than drivel like that. Anyway, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.  Or address your concerns with the seller via convo first rather than poor public review with no chance for the seller to respond.  Just be nice and considerate. Please.

On a happier note, if you are craving a chocolate chip cookie but don't want to make a whole bunch, try this recipe.  Leaving out the cornstarch and using semi-sweet chocolate chips (no adding extra to the top), six big cookies have about 200 calories each.  Just really reduce the baking time.  I'd start checking at 5-6 minutes.  I think you could easily make 8 smaller cookies too, at 150 calories each. 

Oh, and we started a new puzzle.  This one is all Mustang advertisements.  We decided since this was easier than the London puzzle we would not refer to the picture on the box at all.  It's a little harder in that the pieces are all really unusual shapes and not just interlocking like the last one. Our strategy here was to build the border and then put all the pieces with words inside.  This may bite us because we don't know where inside each part goes.  Oh well.




1 comment

  1. I ove your blue quilt, very pretty! And the row with the dog is fun ;)
    Visiting from Sarah Goer Quilts.

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